By The Way
by TheSilentTrowaBarton
Summary: The Fire Nation Four head out after the Avatar. After deciding that a path through an earth kingdom forest is the best way to follow them without being noticed they run into one of Zuko’s rivals from BaSingSe and end up captured. Seems like Jet just wont
1. Chapter 1

By The Way

Azula/Jet-Mai/Zuko

A/N:This takes place after taking over BaSingSe okies? Um, yeah, hopefully this won't turn into an epic. I hate writing those. My plan is that I'll write out all the chapters, THEN post the story. I support these pairing but I also support things like Ty Lee and Sokka. and mai and jet and things like that. (Ty lee/haru!) This just happens to be what I wanted for this story. By the way, this has a lot to do with me wanting to rewrite episodes with Ozai's angel's in it. So here's "Jet" through new eyes. (PS I don't believe that Jet's dead, he just keeps coming back. Plus I think that SmellerBee and LongShot got him out. I think well of them.) So, this is possiably AU. But it goes mostly with the general story line. (Yes I realize that Jet/Azula is practically impossible.)

Disclaimer: I don't own avatar.

zuko

"Let's walk through the forest! The Avatar will never think we're following right below him!" Mai mockingly stated to her leader who was trudging slowly through the thick brush.

"Enough!" Azula grunted to her defiant friend who simply cocked an 'I told you so' eyebrow.

"HEY!" Ty Lee waved the group forward with enthusiasm. "You guys have to check this out!"

The group rushed forward. Azula's face soon became grim with disappointment.

"Why is there an abandon Fire Nation camp?" Her words came out more of an irritated grunt then words themselves. Her mind was killing all the soldiers that had failed at their duties.

"Because they were ambushed." Zuko stood, glaring at some familiar markings that lined the bark of a tree. "Freedom Fighters…" His eyes grew to tight slits as he scanned the canopy of the forest.

Mai's eyes seemed to be doing the same, but she had made no mention of her already quick vigilance.

"What's that?" Ty Lee inquired, though taking little interest in the actual subject.

"Just some people that I met in BaSingSe…but it looks like there are more of them."

"Twelve." Mai muttered, tucking her hands into her rather baggy sleeves.

Azula and Ty Lee quickly nodded, realizing that their friend had discovered the ambush that was just about to take place.

The three girls backed up toward one another, taking a defensive position, "Well, that makes things a little more interesting." Azula smirked.

Just as soon as she had spoken several of the 'hidden' attackers leapt from the trees from all directions. The girls fanned out into their attack formation as Zuko rushed through the crowd looking for the enemies all too familiar leader.

Azula tossed her lightening about, tagging several of the small children as soon as they came within her view. To her surprise, once they were hit, they seemed to bounce back. "What's this?" She asked herself, voice spilling with intrigue.

"It's armor stupid!" One of the younger boys shouted to her while another pounced at her from above.

Azula smirked; they had armor against her lightening did they? Well then, they must have already scouted ahead before the group had even entered the forest. "Well done." She smirked; glad to see there was a 'worthy' opponent within their ranks.

"Duke! Watch out!" One of the members shouted as Azula began to use her regular fire bending against them. They had prepared for lightening, but had completely forgotten to fire proof their outfits. Maybe her opponents weren't as intelligent as she had thought.

Ty Lee happily punched and jabbed at the smaller children that were running at her, knowing full well that it was simply going to be a game. None of them would actually attempt to harm her, as she would not harm them. She giggled and flipped over a child's back, landed a blow between his shoulder blades and bound over to the next, enjoying how quickly they seemed to jump back up. When she turned to land a punch on another one of the children she was suddenly met with a knife to her throat.

"Freeze!" The small boy growled at her, pulling harshly on her braid. "You're not going anywhere."

Mai backed herself against a tree, picking out the men that were attempting to hit her from the treetops. She smirked, tossed a few darts from her wrist guns, and watched them fall from their position. Mai had already figured that they had pre-scouted after seeing the way that the groups spilt up and attacked only specific targets. Mai knew that she of all people had not shown enough of her weaponry for the group to predict what she was carrying. She also knew that her baggy outfit concealed most of the weapons that even Azula did not know that she carried.

"Hey!" One of the other boys shouted. Mai ignored him and kept her eye on her next target, hit him in the neck and smiled when he fell from the trees. Suddenly something caught onto the fabric of her jacket and her shoulder was immobile. Mai's eyes quickly shifted to see a boy with his bow drawn quickly shoot another arrow toward her, pinning her arm to the tree.

"Damn it." She hissed through her teeth. "Azula!" Mai shouted through her raspy voice, looking over to her friend who seemed to be making a game of things.

"What?" Azula turned to see two of her team members stuck in their own little predicaments. "Oh."

Ty Lee grunted, flipping her hair around as one of the larger team members carried her away, "Unlock these! I'm warning you!" She kicked her feet and grunted while the other two walking behind the boy carrying her giggled. Ty Lee glared at them and quickly bit down into the shoulder of her captor who simply stopped and held her up in front of his face by the back of her shirt. She dangled like a doll.

"I suggest you don't do that again." The kid grunted.

"Good one Tiny." The boy that had held the knife to her throat earlier smiled at him.

Ty Lee just glared at him then looked over to her companions with a worried expression, "AZULA!!!"

Azula shoved the two opponents out of the way and ran toward Ty Lee, scanning the area while she hurried along, Mai could handle herself for now. "Zuko, my foolish brother, you'd better have gone to do something you wont regret."

"Well, well." An all too familiar voice came from a tree branch just behind him.

"Jet." Zuko turned to glare at his rival. "What do you want with us?"

Jet glared at him, "You're fire nation Lee. I have to turn you guys in." Jet pulled the ragweed out of his mouth and spit to the side, "Plus, you're in our home… we had to get you out somehow. You know… it's funny that you ran off like you did. I bet the gang's already got you're little friends all tied up by now and they're waiting back at base."

"What did you do with them!?" Zuko shouted, his fists beginning to clench as he attempted not to throw flames at the boy.

"Nothing yet." Jet smiled, "If you come with me, I'll let you off easy."

Zuko just continued to glare.

"Fine, have it your way." Jet reached behind his back and gabbed onto his weapons. "You know…_Zuko_." Jet smiled when he glared harder. "I wonder how much your dad's going to pay to get the princess and her little friends back."

Zuko reached for his broadswords, knowing full well that he could take Jet out with them alone, "You won't be able to capture my sister." Zuko cursed himself, he knew full well that his sister could beat him no problem. She had done it before plenty of times when they were younger. There was no way she would lose to the 'freedom fighters'.

Azula sprinted over to her friend that was slung over the mans shoulder, this little game was getting out of hand, and her brothers absence would not be forgiven. "Just a minute Mai, I'm getting Ty Lee first!" She shouted as the girl kicked off the fighters surrounding her.

"Fine." Mai grunted, kicking one of the boys in the side.

Azula raised two pointed fingers at the man carrying Ty Lee on his shoulder and smirked, "Too easy." Azula shifted her stance, but just as she felt the lightening leave her fingertips, her feet gave from under her, and her body was quickly lifted to the canopy. "What?!"

The boy that had held Ty Lee at knifepoint smiled, "That's right! It was too easy!" He thumbed his nose at Azula who was wrapped tightly inside of some wire trap that wouldn't allow her to use her lightening. "MAI!" The girl shouted, hoping her friend would cut her free.

"What." Mai glared at her while they bound her wrists with some sort of steal rope.

Azula pause for a moment then glanced at what area she could, "Where's my brother?"

"He took off and headed west, he was tracking someone."

Azula smirked at the girls reassured voice, "Thank you Mai." Azula inhaled as deeply as she could, preparing herself to shout for her brother, something that she normally would have never done in any other circumstance, but before she could there was a rather odd birdcall coming from one of the boys lowering her prison to the ground. For a moment she held the deep breath but then let it out in a sigh when another call returned and the boy smiled deviously at her.

"Looks like they caught him too!"

Just as Jet was about to leap to the ground he stopped, at hearing some spontaneous birdcall. Jet smiled down at Zuko and laughed, "Well, well, looks like they caught your little sister and her friends." Jet slid his weapons onto his back and smiled, "Looks like I don't need to fight you anymore."

"You're lying!" Zuko shouted.

"Oh am I?" Jet smiled, "Boys." He raised an arm, and before Zuko could give moments reaction, two boys about his size had twisted his arms behind his back and held him into submission. "Give up yet?" Jet smiled as the two smashed Zuko's face into the dirt. Zuko just returned his question with an aggravated shout and Jet laughed, "Take him back to camp boys."

A/N: Sorry. is spacing everything every time I hit enter. If you copy it into a word doc it's easier to read, yes? WOO! I felt like this was a good place to stop. Plus my ear is hurting me so bad I think that I need to lie down for a moment and rest. I'm REALLLLY liking this. It's fun to write. (Plus I adore Jet and stuffs. I love his character and the way that he talks. It's so childish! It's great to mess with. But Zuko will always kick his butt, so don't get too happy bout it!) Thanks so much for the readers that have followed me so far! The cute story line will really begin next chapter!

"Standing in line to see the show tonight and there's a light on. Heavy glow. By The Way I tried to say I'd be there. Waiting for…" (title was inspired by red hot chili peppers, and has absolutely nothing to do with the story! heheh)


	2. Chapter 2

By The Way

Azula/Jet-Mai/Zuko

A/N: I'm having fun with this story, the only problem is while I'm writing this, I'm in serious pain from my ear, so I keep having to stop to rest so that my ear wont hurt so much. (But writing or not, it still hurts.) oh well. Hopefully I keep having fun and sticking to the general flow that I'm feeling while I write. Well, enjoy! (no flames please!) This is my take on the epp. "Jet" except it has Azula, Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko in it instead! ; I know jet might be dead, but I though this might be neat.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar! Thank you! " Snarg! I must capture the Avatar!"

"We've had yet another victory against the fire nation!" Jet raised his glass as the rest of the freedom fighters cheered him on. Jet stepped onto the table and toasted it higher, "Since our recent decision to go straight, not only have we had an easier time living, but the forest spirits really seem to be on our sides!" Again the large group of children cheered.

"What are they doing?" Azula muttered as she watched the large colony of children cheer and clap at their leader's speech. Azula looked down at her wire wrapped hands and then at the wires tying her group to the tree. "Mai, any idea on how to get us out? I'm getting sick of listening to this idiocy."

Mai frowned and stretched her neck out to look at her leader, "…We're bound to a tree with wire… They cleaned me out, and I don't have anything to cut it with… so no."

Azula looked to Ty Lee who was tied up beside her, they were all pinned against the tree, Mai and Azula both on the outsides, furthest from one another so that plans between them couldn't be easily made. "Ty Lee?"

Ty Lee just shook her head. "Our best chance is for one of the kids to let us out. And they don't seem to like us very well… so…"

Azula huffed, "Brother please tell me that you have some sort of idea!" Azula rolled her eyes. Her brother was soon becoming nothing more then a burden to their normally perfect team.

"He's planing to sell us back to father… or the earth nation… I'm sure they'll pay good money for us." Zuko hummed.

Azula nodded. After they had left, Azula had returned all control over the DaiLee to Long Feng, and by now the man had to be power hungry and given up completely on their little truce. As long as he had the earth nation's stronghold, there was no helping that situation without an army. "Well the DaiLee aren't coming to save us… and father knows that we're just going as a small team…"

"Since you shipped your Uncle back, he's not coming for us." Ty Lee frowned.

"Our only chance is for us to get in good with one of the members of the freedom fighters." Zuko whispered.

"Then who'll it be?" Azula asked, looking to the other two girls. Mai shook her head defiantly, only glancing at Zuko for a second to let Azula know she refused fully. Ty Lee frowned at her and stuck out her tongue. "Really girls." Azula rolled her eyes.

"Hey there." Jet approached the group, "You all seem to be having a pretty good time. So, what do you think of the place?"

Azula smiled, "You built this all yourself?"

Jet nodded, keeping his eyes lowly slit, "Yes."

"You guys live in the trees? That's disgusting." Mai shivered.

Jet spit out his ragweed and glared at her, "It's the fire nation's fault that we have to live this way."

"Better you then us." Mai smirked.

Jet growled at the girl, the looked harshly at Zuko, "You better tell your friend to watch her mouth. I might have to get rid of her before we cam make the trade." Jet glared at her again, becoming infuriated when she seemed to space out and completely ignore him. "We wouldn't want an accident."

Mai chuckled at his 'threat'.

"Now, now." Azula smiled, allowing her calm acting to fall into play, "I'm sure you're an intelligent leader. We can work something out."

"Oh we'll work something out alright." Jet glared at the princess. "You and you're buddies here are going to go on a long trip."

Azula frowned, keeping her friendly mask on, "Isn't it true that all the major earth nation cities are taken by the fire nation though? Who will you sell us off to?"

Jet smiled at her, "Smart girl." He spun around and paced in front of the group, "There's a small refugee camp where the citizens of Omashu fled to. As we speak, there are more people from BaSingSe headed there. Looks like the earth nation has a new capital."

Azula cocked her head to the side, "You mean that the citizens of Omashu were never captured?"

"That's right." Jet stated. Azula shot a glare Mai's way and her friend simply shrugged. "Looks like you're daddy's going to be in for more then he thought. And with the eclipse coming, there's no telling what's going to happen to your precious fire nation."

Ty Lee suddenly piped up, "You know, you're not that cute."

Jet cocked an eyebrow at the girl, "And?"

"And I figured their leader would be cuter." Ty Lee frowned, "It's sad."

Jet sneered at her for a moment till Azula jumped in, "Hush Ty Lee." Azula's 'friendly face' suddenly turned to that of a predator, "You've never been very good at picking out men…" Azula smirked, "For someone not of the Fire Nation he's not all that bad."

Zuko and Mai both rolled their eyes at Azula's antics.

Jet smirked at her, " You're not half bad yourself, but don't go thinking just because you're sweet on me means that I'm gonna' let you go."

Azula smirked, continuing with her ploy, "I wouldn't dream of it."

Jet waved and walked back to his family of orphans.

"Well that was amusing." Mai hummed.

Azula sighed, letting her irate face claw its way back over her expression, "He's a simpleton, this won't take long."

"Morning prisoners!" Jet saluted them as he threw the door open on the hut that they had been tied up in. "You sleep well?"

Azula smiled at him while the others slowly opened their eyes from the spots that they had been tied to, "Very well. And you yourself?"

"Like a king. It's not everyday you have the future of the fire nation tied up in one of your huts." Jet stretched out while he watched them squirm. The night before he had the prisoners moved to a hut where they were all bound to steal beams for the night. The group had soon figured out that they could slide down to the floor and rest by leaning against the poles.

"Any progress with our exchange so far?" Azula inquired.

Jet shrugged, "What good does it do to tell you? It's not like there's any way for you to escape." Jet paused for a moment then nodded, "Alright then. We've spoken to the leader of the resistance. He's talking about funding us as soldiers, and all for your trade. That basically means that we're set for life, so long as we keep the fire nation out of this area of the forest."

Azula nodded, "Well that wont be hard. I hate to say it, but the Fire Nation really has no interest in this forest. You're really just protecting a rest area really." Azula looked over her shoulder to Ty Lee who was beginning to squirm herself awake. "You know, you're really just going to trade us for some ranks and supplies? Really? You seem smarter then that."

Jet glanced at her questioningly, "Yeah? What makes you think that the fire nation wont find this area valuable soon? The land here's pretty good, and there's pleasantly of coal mines around to fuel your machines."

Azula shrugged, "If there's no more war, why would we need machines?"

Jet fixed his gaze on her for a moment as she continued to look him in the eyes, "…they'll bring you breakfast in soon." He threw the door open and stormed out.

Zuko lifted his head and blinked slowly, "What was that?" He looked at his shoulder where Mai was resting her head contently. "…" He shifted slightly and shook her awake. The steal beam that he and Mai were tied to was about ten feet away from Azula's and Ty Lee's, there was no way for the group to attempt to push apart the structures with combined force.

"Looks like we've made a breakthrough." Azula smirked.

"The entire town's destroyed…" Azula mused.

"Yup." Jet smiled back at his captive. "When we broke the damn it was supposed to clear the fire nation out completely, but instead the citizens just moved."

"So you have nowhere to go for food." Azula's voice rung with amusement. Jet had allowed her out of the giant tree house so he could simply show off to her. A devious smile graced her lips. Although she was still bound by the wires that stopped her bending, and her feet were shackled enough so that she wouldn't be able to take so much as a step without him, she was making progress.

"Yeah… it's the Avatar and his friends fault that we're still living like this too. They've only made it worse."

Azula nodded, this time agreeing with some of his irritation, "I'm beginning to quickly despise them."

Jet looked back at her as she sat down, "They've basically almost got me killed for them… if it wasn't for LongShot and Smellerbee, I'd be toast."

"That girls the worst of my problems." Azula glared hard at the ground.

"He name's Katara… I had this thing for her… but she just ends up turning her back on me every time." Jet sat next to her sighing for a moment then looking to her. "What's your problem with her?"

Azula's mind was racing. She had an open chance to use him. He was opening up to her. "She's not the easiest opponent… I can manage to take out the Avatar, but when I'm fighting her…" Azula bit her lip, tasting a small bead of blood as it formed through her broken skin, "I'm the prodigy. Not her…."

Jet placed a hand on Azula's shoulder. "It's horrible isn't it?" Azula looked at him and then returned her gaze to the ground.

"I suppose…" She looked back at him and stared for a moment till he suddenly stood up, breaking his gaze from hers.

"Alright we should get back to camp…"

Azula smiled when his stare began to avoid her eyes. She had him trapped.

"You're a girl?" Ty Lee asked. The group of freedom fighters had moved the girl from the hut out to the main area of the fort.

"YES!" The 'boy' that had earlier held her at knifepoint had made herself known. "You're not that bright are you?"

Ty Lee just stared at her blankly.

"…yeahhh…" She looked at the board, "What's your name again?"

"Ty Lee!" She smiled from where she sat with her hands and feet bound together. They had also strapped her down to where she sat. "What's yours cutie?"

"It's Smellerbee." She paused for a moment. "Stop calling me that!"

"But you're so adorable! Are you sure you aren't a boy?"

"Be Quiet!" Smellerbee shouted.

Ty Lee sat silently smiling while the small group that had formed around them laughed.

"Looks like you got yourself a new friend." Tiny laughed.

"Quiet!" Smellerbee growled in her raspy voice.

"Can we go back to playing now?" Ty Lee asked nodding to the tiles in front of them.

Smellerbee nodded and placed another tile in place. "There you happy?"

Ty Lee nodded and motioned for one of the boys to move the third tile into place. "Hooray!"

"For someone held captive, you're sure having fun." She muttered.

"Yup!"

"This is the most miserable experience that I've ever had the displeasure to live through…" Mai muttered, looking over her shoulder at Zuko.

"You couldn't keep your mouth shut." Zuko growled.

"They had it coming." Mai smirked. Her and Zuko were suspend some hundred feet in the canopy by a single rope, holding the two together, both bound at the hands hanging above practically nothing, and with nothing below them.

"…so… now what?" Zuko asked.

"Shout more insults." Mai suggested.

"I meant, what can we do that would be productive?" Zuko grunted.

"We could cut ourselves down." Mai said.

"How? We don't have a knife, and with my hands tied like this I can't bend." Zuko sighed and shifted his weight causing them so swing some.

"That's ok, you suck at bending anyway. …and I do." Mai smirked again.

"What?! But you said you didn't have any knives!" Zuko paused for a moment and realized she had taken a jab at his pride. She really was too mouthy.

"There were guards in the tree above us. I wasn't about to lose our only chance at escaping."

"…so when you mouthed off, you knew they were going to hang us up here?" Zuko asked, slightly gaffed that one of Azula's friends could be so quiet and so intelligent at the same time.

"I guessed. It seemed pretty logical to save a knife. Once I realized that they were going to sit and guard us, it seemed like the younger kids would just use rope if they decided to hang us out." Mai was shifting her back and beginning to allow her body to loosen up.

"How'd you keep a knife from them?"

"Having your hair done up like mine isn't all that bad." Mai spoke.

Zuko looked over his shoulder to spot something silver that resembled a pin in her hair. "Ah. So how are you going to get it out?"

"I'm not, you are." Mai smiled inwardly.

"How?!" Zuko kicked some; "I'm just as stuck as you!"

"Just turn around and pull it out with your teeth, it's not that hard. Didn't you learn anything when they trained you when you were younger?" Mai turned her head to make it easier to pull the knife out. She was getting a kick out of this.

"…fine." Zuko sighed reluctantly for a moment, wondering what drove this girl to be so open with him then shook it off. He twisted as much as he could and bit the pin, pulling it out as quickly as he could to get away from the girl. It wasn't that he didn't like her or anything, he just still wasn't sure about how to deal with girls, especially her… "I got it." He spoke through his gritted teeth, noticing that the knife had been encased in a sheath and widened the further down it went, then slimmed down more at the end again. How she managed to keep it hidden, he couldn't figure out. "Now what?"

"Drop it against my back, I'll catch it and cut us loose." She adjusted her hands to catch it, unlike him, they had left her hands practically free since, as far as they knew, she could not bend.

"K." Zuko paused for a moment, wondering how he was going to stretch his neck anymore then he already had to get it into her hands. He finally leaned backwards and dropped the knife down the line of her back, inwardly praying that she would catch it.

"Thanks." She stated, opening it from it's casing. And beginning to saw at the rope.

"Wait." He asked for a moment, "Where are we going to land?"

Mai sighed, "I'm going to basically fall, you're going to have to catch me with your legs if you can. I'll cut you loose and then we'll basically pray that we free fall to something soft." She continued to cut the rope.

"You're serious?!" He shouted.

"…there's no other way." Mai frowned cutting through the rope. Just as quick as she fell he kicked his legs to react. He closed his eyes praying that his swing had been enough to at least catch her, or give her something to grab onto.

A/N: Another done! K, the Mai and Zuko scene is really really hard to actually do. It actually requires you to be able to turn your head almost a complete 180, and almost pop a shoulder out of the socket, OR bending over backwards. Very hard. (I tested to see haha.) Sorry if they're a little OOC, hopefully I'll fix that in editing it. Ooo cliffhanger? Coolies. I've never done that. Um.. I guess that I'll put lyrics at the end of this one too. Thank you to the reviewers! No flames please. ( I plan on hopefully putting fluff in the next chapter.) Haha, after editing I realized how funny Mai was. I think my attitude with Azula in this one came from watching "Azula Sexy, Naughty, Bitch" too much. (Watch it! It's great if you think well of her!)

"Dead men wishin' they had got together with you girl. But you're a dirty little liar with a message of obsession to come." Velvet Revolver's Dirty little thing. It reminded me of Azula. :shurgs: thanks.


	3. Chapter 3

By The Way

Azula/Jet-Mai/Zuko

A/N: Final Chapter for this one! Thanks you all who've stuck with me! I've had fun with it! I'm hoping to write a few more like it if people think this one's any good. (Like I want to redo the swamp episode and the tunnel episode too.) Thanks again to the reviewers! And thank you for not flaming when I get bad. ; constructive criticism is way cooler, cause at least that way I can fix it, right? Anyway, my ear problems are gone now, hoary! (I'm very sleepy, so hopefully I'll have this edited tomorrow night.)

Disclaimer: I don't own avatar.

"What's wrong?" Azula asked. Jet had stopped abruptly a few minutes before and had been pacing back and forth, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well…" Jet sighed at her, "I'm really not sure."

Azula smiled in her dark yet reassuring way. "Come now, haven't' I been a help? You know you can speak to me."

Jet smiled at her, "Well, I'm thinking of whether or not to kill you." He sighed.

Azula's eyes shot open only for a split second. "Oh?"

"You see, you're fire nation…You're ruining all my plans." Jet stepped over to her and placed a hand on her cheek. He shook his head. "You're causing too much trouble. What would the gang think if they saw that I was going soft?"

Azula instinctively rested her cheek against his hand, allowing him to hold her head up. "I see."

He smiled at her as he thumbed her cheek, "Always the trouble makers. Eh?"

Ty Lee looked out over the edge of the large structure from her spot. A smile spread across her face and she looked back at the group to see if anyone had noticed anything.

"Hey, pay attention circus girl!" Smellerbee called her back to the game.

"Uh, hu." Ty Lee reverted her gaze with a new hope on her face.

"You see, my entire plan was to get the information that I needed from you, then to sell you off like a simple box of moon peaches. …but you're just making things too complicated." He leaned down and kissed her. With little hesitation she kissed him back and smiled after he let her go. She mocked him inwardly, thinking about how short and mechanical he had gone about it. "Well, I guess this is good-bye." He reached into his vest and pulled out a dagger, "Sorry things couldn't go differently."

Azula smiled her dark smile and suddenly felt a pang inside her stomach that caused her eyes to cast themselves downward and her smile to curve into a frown. "Me too."

Jet brought the dagger down swiftly, going to slash her across the throat only to be stopped by a silver flash. The dark haired girl with the knives was standing in front of him, soaking wet and completely stocked with new knives.

"Hey." Mai spoke, her stance was solid. Her right arm holding a dagger that had stopped his. She had not thrown it, but braced against his swing, protecting her leader. Jet knew full well that the girl would kill him if given the chance. He quickly spun around to run back to the forest, pulling his hooks from his back to help him defend himself. Before he had been able to turn to face where he was running, someone knocked him to the ground. (a/n: I foget what Jet's weapons are called.)

"Hey." Zuko stood before him, also soaked, but holding a strong stance and holding two broadswords. "Where were you going?"

"Get out of my way!" Jet shouted.

Mai frowned at Zuko. "He was messing with your baby sister Zuko… Are you just going to let him run?" Mai asked, making sure Jet and Azula heard her clearly.

Azula raised an eyebrow at the couple. They seemed to be making a cooperative fighting pair. Maybe there was hope for her brother after all.

"…No I don't think I will." Zuko charged at him swiftly bringing his broadswords against the hooks.

"WAIT!" Azula shouted as her brother bombarded her captor.

Zuko pinned the hooks into the ground with his swords and looked up at his sister while Mai undid the cuffs and gloves. "What?"

Azula's eyes were stricken with worry and fear, "Just catch him and tie him up."

"…" Zuko looked down at the now helpless Jet, who glared harshly at him.

"He's mine." Azula hissed at her brother.

"Get on with it!" He yelled. Zuko nodded and kicked the boy in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and leaving him curled up in a ball.

"Mai." Zuko looked up at her and she walked over to Jet and quickly bound his hands and feet. "Do what you want with him." Zuko muttered to Azula. "Just don't set him free."

Azula nodded and looked down at Jet as Mai and Zuko made their way toward the camp. Her eyes were completely unreadable for the time being, causing Jet to simply let out a defeated and sigh and close his eyes.

As soon as the fight had begun it was over. Mai had crept her way back up into the camp with Zuko, Azula following without Jet, just tailing them. The two had used their stealth skills to get Ty Lee, free her and the four managed to run about the base, taking out who ever came at them. As soon as their things were back in their possession, the four quickly left the forest and gladly relieved ran out onto the field and collapsed, resting themselves.

"Thank goodness for open skies!" Ty Lee flopped down onto the grass. "No more trees for me!"

Azula sighed sitting down, and rubbing her hands free of cramps, "It's nice to be loose."

Zuko nodded from his spot in the grass and questioned his sister, "What did you do with him?"

"Does it really matter?" She looked down at her sharp nails and pretended to not care.

"He'll come after us."

"I threw him off the cliff." Azula glared at Zuko.

Mai sat up and shook her head, "I find that hard to believe."

Azula shot the girl a death glare, but only got smiles back from the two female friends.

"So," Ty Lee smiled at her, "Do we have another target?" There was definitely playfulness in her voice.

"I suppose." Azula smiled, continuing to focus on her nails.

Zuko dropped back into the tall grass and sighed, "You let him go." He slapped himself in the forehead. Mai leaned over him, placing her hand on his chest and began to speak to him while Azula smiled.

"It's nice isn't it?" Ty Lee whispered.

"hm?" Azula looked at her.

"Having someone to hope for." Ty Lee winked at her.

Azula shrugged, "I have no idea what you're talking about." There was a momentary silence as the two glanced over at Zuko and Mai, then returned to their thoughts. "He was cute you know."

A/N: Ta'da.. 99 gosh. Don't we write best when whe shouldn't be writing at all? okie I have to go to bed. Thanks to all my reviewers! I wish I could reply to all your comments but I think it might get annoying to you all! thank you so much! Your comments mean the world to me! I hope you enjoyed this one! As little Mai/Zuko as there is in it, I honestly love the end, yet I question myself as to WHY I let Mai and Zuko all of a sudden be all close and everything. AW! Now I'm going to feel the need to write a pull out from the fic. :bashes head in: alright, I suppose if enough people are interest in me writing just a little insert as to what happens after Mai and Zuko get cut down from the trees I guess I will. (It's really only going to take like one person though. Haha, I'm so gullible.) ++ rant over.


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